I'm John Batch with Selena Zitov, the Pittsburgh Post, because at the New York Post, the New

York Post, Cudi Pennsylvania.

This is the South Fire Township Volunteer Fire Department.

Look on Miller's run road.

It looks handsome, Selena, and the American flags and the perfectly washed units.

What I learned from you is that volunteer fire companies, depending on the big part,

volunteer, are in decline all across America.

How long has this been going on?

So this has been going on since the 70s, the late 1970s, where the volunteerism peaked

in this country in terms of volunteer firefighters.

At that time, there were 338,000 volunteers in this country.

Today there are 38,000.

I don't think people understand that volunteer firemen make up 90% of the firefighters

in this country.

They are the people that respond to fires in your community at a home, at a business,

in the fire in the woods.

Everyone is trapped inside their cars, someone is trapped in the water.

These are the people that always show up.

And they are not paid for this job.

At South Fayette, there used to be that were volunteers today.

They're down around two dozen, a little over two dozen.

And this is a deep problem, not just with firefighters, but across the country.

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